Heliwest Provides Australian Fire Season Support

Perth, Autstralia-based Heliwest is providing support to ground-based incident commanders fighting forest fires in Australia. The company is currently two years into a five-year contract with Australia's Department of Fire And Management Services (DEMFS) to provide a 10-minute response during fire season, which usually lasts from November to March. Using a Bell 206L and a Eurocopter BO105, operators are able to provide live video footage with a portable Video Mission Box (VMB) from CarteNav and military grade MX15-HDi military grade camera.

Over the last two years, Heliwest has flown more than 500 task hours using the system, and has added pipeline inspections and pollution monitoring as well. The group will be an exhibitor at Helitech 2013.